The emergence of the Lorenzo Mission Institute has an historical antecedent which creates one of the most important missionary events of Philippine Church history. The evangelization program of the Chinese in the Philippines became a stepping board towards a wider thrust of mission namely: the missions in the Far East and the mission project for China. The Philippines became a strategic place of rethinking about mission in Asia during the Spanish period. 

The Church realized during the Spanish times that mission among the Chinese in the Philippines meant opportunities of mission in China. The Gospel has to be preached everywhere and beyond the presence of the Chinese in the Philippines who sailed through sampans became a mission motivation of strengthening the capacity to do mission outside the Philippine archipelago by evangelizing the Chinese in the Philippines. The Chinese Apostolate in the Philippines began during the time of Bishop Domingo de Salazar who was the first bishop of Manila (1579-1594). The constant influx of Chinese merchants, wave after wave even before the Spaniards came to the Philippines became a fascinating culture to be evangelized. Winning the hearts of the Chinese in the Philippines needed a program and a concerted effort on how to do mission among them since they possess a different culture and spoke a different language. It was from this idea and method that a distinct Apostolate was born.

The religious congregations of the 16th Century like the Augustinians and the Dominicans had shifted more attention to the evangelization of the Chinese in the Philippines hoping to bring the Gospel to the Chinese in Mainland China. Intensifying the evangelization among the sangleys (frequent coming) would mean a parish, a school and a territorial home of domicile had to be given to them. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Binondo, Manila became the parish for the catechetical instruction and liturgy for the Chinese. Besides, a separate place for merchandising was also designated for them and it was called the Parian. Thus, this had indicated more that the evangelization of the Chinese in the Philippines calls forth a new method of mission and evangelization through a specific path which called the Chinese Apostolate in the Philippines.

In the past decades, the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate has been carried on by the Chinese priests who were ordained in the Philippines after their journey from the Mainland following the political problems that shook China in 1949. Those Chinese priests established schools, parishes, and hospitals as a way to improve and update the method of continuing the Chinese apostolate which began in the 16th century. Right before the turn of the third century, these Chinese priests began to think about their successors to the Filipino-Chinese apostolate. Yet, it was a moment of rethinking because of the signs of the times and the changes that are experienced in the Philippine society today. One of the things that was considered was the establishment of a seminary for the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate. In the 1980s, it was one of the concerns of the local church in the Philippines. There were things to be considered if ever a seminary has to be erected. First, the “Chinese” in the Philippines are integrated already into the mainstream of Filipino society and to have a special apostolate for them might be irrelevant. Second, the nature of a Filipino-Chinese can be hardly defined and described. It appears that the Filipino-Chinese of what it was a century or half a century ago would be different today. Third, most of the Filipino-Chinese parishes which were personal before are now territorial. It would personal if Chinese masses are celebrated. Third generation or fourth generation Chinese do not speak Hokkien or Mandarin languages already. Fourth, if there would be a Filipino-Chinese Apostolate, what would it comprise?

Nevertheless, the local church in the Philippines pursued a form of aggiornamento at the onset of the 1990s through the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines. In the Acts and Decrees of the Council no. 109, the mention of the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate is an encouraging one. The Council intends to intensify the Apostolate considering the signs of the times. Thus, the mission of the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate has to be updated in its approaches and methodology. Scrutinizing the signs of the times and interpreting them in the light of the Gospel (cf. GS 4) is one of the integral missions of the local church in the Philippines. If the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate is somehow in its decline or for some an “outdated” form of mission or an “irrelevant” or “redundant” structure of pastoral work, then it would be the mission of the local church to rediscover the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate in the 21st century. 

The Lorenzo Mission Institute has been established in 1987 for the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate and for mission among the Chinese communities beyond the shores of the Philippine archipelago. It is part of the local church’s thrust of missio ad gentes. Its relevance is noted through rediscovering of its identity amidst the signs of the times. 

The Lorenzo Mission Institute is not only a seminary for mission but an institution that learns to update itself to the shifting identity and face of the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate in the Philippines today. The shifts that are transpiring in two major dimensions namely: the Philippine society, and the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate prompt the Lorenzo Mission Institute to discover the paradigm shifts of mission to make the seminary and the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society relevant to the local  church’s mission in the 21st century.

The Lorenzo Mission Institute and the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society were both founded by the late Jaime Cardinal Sin who was the Archbishop of Manila when the seminary and the Society were established in 1987 and 1997 respectively. These two institutions are concrete responses to the vision of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines no. 109 that says: “and here on our own land is a vast field of mission related to the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate…The progress made in evangelizing through the educational and pastoral work of the Filipino-Chinese apostolate is an encouragement. We need to intensify this…” The Lorenzo Mission Institute became also the fruit of the encouragement of Pope John Paul II when he visited the local church in the Philippines in 1981. He encouraged and challenged the Church in the Philippines to be missionaries to Asia especially in China. This mission was the dream of many missionaries in the past.

The relevance of the Lorenzo Mission Institute and the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society depends on the urgent need of mission in the local church. As the Society sees the urgency of mission among the Filipino-Chinese in the Philippines amidst the rapid changes transpiring among cultures and subcultures in the Philippine society today, the seminary formation and the Society will remain relevant. The updating and discovering the relevance of the Lorenzo Mission Institute and the Lorenzo Ruiz Mission Society will always produce competent missionaries for the local church in the Philippines. The Lorenzo Mission Institute has been updating itself to live according to the signs of the times and it has been operating along the paths of URGENCY, COMPETENCE, AND RELEVANCE.